Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Ocean Grove beach house and what we ate

Melbourne is in the grip of a heatwave of 40 plus (Celcius) over four consecutive days. We are back in the city but I am very glad to have spend some of these scorching days by the beach. It cooled the body and delighted the soul.

My parents booked a large holiday house at Ocean Grove so there was room for family to stay together. It was a large house with lots of little areas to relax and gather. The house was clean, the garden was pretty and the decorations had a touch of quirkiness. I loved the pink flamingo in the garden and the old Enid Blyton books.

We had heaps of food. My sister's boyfriend brought along his Webber bbq to cook up a feast. (Yes it cooked vegetarian sausages.) My sister-in-law had a Las Vegas birthday party on the weekend and the remains of her red velvet birthday cake ended up in the house (along with a few sore heads). We had lots of salads, cake (more about that later), bikkies, chocolate and berries. (Thanks Ivan for the amazing fresh picked strawberries!)

I love visiting the beach with my extended family. They are far more enthusiastic about the beach than E and Sylvia. I had so much fun with my nieces and their boogie boards in the waves over quite a few trips to the beach.

Going to the beach was like the army on the move. We had to organise
bathers, suncream, hats, thongs, buckets, boogie boards, towels and
chairs. Then we would find the keys to the house and work out who would go in each car.

Finally into the cars, down the wooden steps, past the seaweed and into the water. It felt cold at first but we warmed up quickly. Then it was just a matter of avoiding some seawead and finding some waves for the boogie board or body surfing.

After one visit we decided to stop at the Cheeky Cow for ice creams. It was a quirky place with lots of cow- themed decoration from cow jokes (Q what do you get when you stand under a cow? A a pat on the head) to mock cow hide throw on a couch. I enjoyed my mint choc chip and my niece Ella claimed they did the best cookies and cream ice creams.

We sat outside with our ice creams (and my parents' dog who had a little bowl of water). On the wall was a takeaway menu on a surfboard. We decided to take some chips back to the house to eat with leftover meat from the bbq.

Not that I was interested in the meat. We had smoked almonds and cheese and baked beans and roasted chickpeas. Who needs meat! The chips and potato cake were good but I don't feel I can comment with much fairness give that we took them home and I ate them while running about after Sylvia.

We had a good supply of fresh bread rolls and salad. Yesterday I had a great salad sandwich for lunch - tomato pesto, lettuce, avocado, tomato, cheese and beetroot. This is exactly what I need on a hot summer day.

Sylvia wasn't so keen on the sea (she loved the sand castles) but she kept cool at the house with a little blow up pool that her cousin Ashy had got for Christmas. The DVDs of Matilda and Annie were watched a few times. The Australian Open (tennis) was also on the television. The kids played Jenga and the Wii. Others were content to just relax with a good book or newspaper.

Now we are back home with a sandy car, some sunburn on my shoulders and leftover cake. I am missing the smell of suncream and then slightly prickly feel of too much sun on my back and sand in the bed. However it is nice to be home, pat the cat, fill the fruit bowl and water the plants.

I'm glad you timed this to miss some of Melbourne's scorching days! You got our weather but for longer, and I've been thinking of you and those in Adelaide too. It sounds like a great break and family time at the beach should be part of every Australian child's memory set (even if I didn't ever love it due to a dislike of sand and mess!).

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.